Swift pulls music from streaming service Spotify

A spokeswoman for Swift, whose single “Shake It Off” was the most-played song on Spotify last week, did not immediately return a call for comment.

The decision means that a large number of fans will have only one option to hear Swift’s new album, “1989,” and that’s to buy it, which hundreds of thousands of people have already done. Music’s most influential artist is simultaneously making a political statement and a savvy business move.

More than 700,000 people bought “1989” in the first two days it went on sale last week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That already exceeds the year’s biggest one-week seller, Coldplay’s “Ghost Stories,” which sold 383,000 in May. Nielsen music analyst David Bakula said Swift, who announced Monday that she would launch a world tour next year, is on pace to challenge the 1.2 million copies she sold the first week her last album, “Red,” went on sale.